“The Calendar of Giving Campaign is F-to-F’s effort to make “giving” more than just a holiday or end-of-year project. The Calendar of Giving was developed to help families engage in a different hands-on giving project every month of the year.”

“Want to give a meaningful gift during the holidays that could have ripple effects year-round? Family-to-Family’s Compassionate Gift Alternatives for the Holidays allow donors to choose a program to support and how much they would like to give.”

“In the end, another child gets a toy, but what’s really meaningful is for them to enable a mom and dad elsewhere in the country to be a giver,” says Pam Koner, executive director of Family-to-Family. “It’s double giving.”

“In an effort to make “giving” more than just a holiday/end-of-year project, Family-to-Family has developed a Calendar of Giving that engages families in a different hands-on giving project every month of the year with creative, out-of-the-box acts of kindness.”

“Faced with more than 50 thousand children stranded on our southern border, we have the opportunity to respond as America has for centuries: by opening our hearts and showing compassion to those in need,” director and founder Pam Koner said in a release.

“This is a wonderful way for a bookstore to provide books to children who are book lovers that can’t afford books, a wonderful new away to sell more books in the store, and a way to engage in conversation about literacy,” said Pam Koner, executive director of Family-to-Family.

“With major support from Welch’s, Family-to-Family the national nonprofit hunger relief organization, is launching its new DoorKnob Dinners Project in Hastings-on- Hudson, N.Y., bringing the number of hunger relief programs it operates in the Rivertowns to three.”

“When consumers use coupons for its brands, the company will make a donation of soap, shampoo and other items to families in need…High Ridge is distributing the products through Family-to-Family, a poverty-relief organization.”

“Beginning this month, Macaroni Kid will feature a non-profit organization that we believe should be on the radar of every Macaroni Kid family. We kick off this new monthly column with Family-to-Family.”

“Realizing this was a teachable moment, the school put together a lesson on giving back. They partnered with a charity called Family-to-Family which donated the money to buy the party gifts that will go to a food pantry or to needy kids at other schools.”

“Family-to-Family, Inc., a nonprofit hunger and poverty relief organization, has a New Year’s resolution program that is easy to follow through on and is also very rewarding for everyone who participates.”

Clean hair or full stomach? In 2013, it might be hard to imagine that any US family has to make a choice between shampoo and food. But the needs are great say non-profit groups that are on the ground helping struggling families who can’t make ends meet.

There are 505 families from about a dozen states who are matched with sponsor families, and if 505 Vine users post videos before Dec. 23, Welch’s will send a bottle of sparkling juice to each family and Vine participant.

“It was amazing for me as I watched the little girls in the family rip open the food box and find two big beautiful picture books along with the groceries,” Koner says. “The joy and excitement on their faces was profound for me to see and that led us to branch out in a whole and exciting direction…”

“Our goal is to get books into the homes of our country’s poorest children and we really do depend on ‘the kindness of strangers’ to make that happen,” said Pam Koner, executive director of Family-to-Family. “In linking up with independent booksellers we get this wonderfully broad audience to tell our One Book At A Time story to, which is truly priceless!”

“Although Family to Family started out as a hunger relief organization, it became an integral lifeline for the people of Broad Channel, New York after their town was severely impacted by Superstorm Sandy.”

“I then made the connection with Family-to-Family, a local New York City grassroots charity that specializes in matching those in need with those able to help, who was able to put the money raised through the auction to immediate use.”

“The Bodens are one of 150 Broad Channel families chosen by lottery in the “Shop ’til You Drop Rebuild-a-Room” project hosted by nonprofit group Family-to-Family, where $28,000 worth of gift certificates were shared among the selected homeowners to purchase materials for rebuilding a room in their storm-damaged homes.”

“Alex Young chose to partner with Family-to-Family because she wanted to ensure that the all the funds raised by her “Christmas Kiss” campaign would have immediate and direct impact for Sandy storm families who needed it most.”

“Koner matched Kim and Kelli Weeks, 29, a lawyer in San Francisco. Kim’s need for help met Kelli’s need to do something more than work and play. She wanted to show a mother, struggling to provide the basics for her children, that someone cared.”

Pam Koner is connecting communities to fight hunger “Koner came up with an idea to connect families in need with donor families. Today her nonprofit Family-to-Family connects more than 600 sponsor and recipient families in communities across the nation.”

“I made contact with the pastor and I said, ‘I want to help, what can I do?’ And, I’ll never forget this, he said: “I prayed for a miracle.” “I said, ‘I’m not a miracle. I’m just an ordinary mom and I want to help.’”

“Mr. Kasekende was taken with the group’s premise of pairing a family in need and a family with enough to share, and he asked Ms. Koner for help starting a program in Uganda. In May, he became the chairman of Family-to-Family’s first international chapter.”

“On any given day, Pam Koner, a single mom of two teenage girls, fields hundreds of emails. Some are from families that need help, but most are from families that want to offer their services to her charity, Family-to-Family.”

‘Lisa Dyson, a pastor at Church of the Cross, says the relationship between donor and recipient families is just as important as what’s packed in the boxes. “It sends a message that somebody cares, and that somebody thought of them time after time…The Family-to-Family program expands their horizons.”’

‘When she first heard about the boxes stuffed with groceries like spaghetti and cereal, Lily Davis of Pembroke, Il., could hardly believe the bounty had come from complete strangers. “I said, ‘Are you sure?’ These people have never met me.”’

“We’re not sending money and it’s not a one-shot,” Koner says. “We’re sending food and we’re offering friendship. We don’t just do Thanksgiving and Christmas. We all send a box every month…and we send a letter that says, ‘How are you?”

“She hopes that the food will feed more than hungry bodies. ‘The idea that people 1000 miles away know that you exist is so profound’, she said. ‘That just changes life’s color wheel, and all of a sudden possibilities unfold.”